South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Gyeongju on Friday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss expanding AI partnerships with Korean firms. Nvidia announced a plan to deploy up to 260,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in South Korea in partnership with the government and leading businesses. The initiative involves Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Naver Cloud establishing AI computing centers powered by Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs.
President Lee Jae Myung told Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, "I am confident that under your leadership, Republic of Korea will serve as a true testing ground and a testbed, which pioneers the era of artificial intelligence, achieving great success without failure." Huang praised South Korea's advanced technological infrastructure, software capabilities, and human resources, stating, "Korea has deep technical capabilities, visionary entrepreneurs and of course, no country in the world is better at industrial capability than Korea. Korea can be one of the world's major AI hubs."
He noted Nvidia's roots in computer graphics and PC gaming as the foundation for modern video technology, highlighting South Korea's pioneering role in esports. Huang added, "I have many announcements to make together for us to work together to help advance AI here in Korea in every industry from automotive to manufacturing to chip fabs, all the way to consumer electronics."
The plan includes allocating 50,000 GPUs for public sector use, as South Korea accelerates efforts to become one of the world's top three AI powers and the "AI capital" of the Asia-Pacific region. Lee said, "If Nvidia drives the speed of AI innovation, Korea is the optimal partner that can best harness that speed and set the right direction for innovation." The meeting was attended by key partners, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, and Naver founder and board chair Lee Hae-jin. Global firms like BlackRock and OpenAI have already agreed to join projects to develop the nation into the region's AI hub.